Local witnesses testify in task force hearing on Trump rally shooting
WASHINGTON — U.S. Secret Service agents told patrolman Drew Blasko of Butler Township Police Department “they would take care of” the AGR building after he voiced concerns before former President Donald Trump’s rally at the Butler Farm Show grounds in July.
Two days later, a gunman climbed up to the AGR roof and used the building as a vantage point from which he fired shots at Trump.
Blasko joined John Herold, lieutenant with the state police, Edward Lenz, sergeant with the Adams Township Police Department and commander of the Butler County Emergency Services Unit, and Patrick Sullivan, a former U. S. Secret Service agent, in testifying before members of a bipartisan House task force investigating the Trump assassination attempt. The first public hearing on Thursday, Sep. 26, highlighted inconsistencies in communication with the Secret Service and lapses in security.
Additionally, Ariel Goldschmidt, medical examiner in Allegheny County, joined the hearing virtually, testifying on the autopsy of the 20-year-old gunman.
Following the shooting on July 13 that killed Buffalo Township resident Corey Comperatore and injured three others, including Trump, local law enforcement and municipal leaders in Butler County received a barrage of threatening emails and phone calls criticizing their role in providing security for the event.
But Thursday morning, testimony from local law enforcement indicated they had performed their duties as requested by the Secret Service, and the Secret Service was the agency that would have ultimately made the call to determine unsafe conditions amid reports of a suspicious person and remove Trump from stage.
The first public hearing follows a recently released report from the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, which is also conducting an investigation. The report states the Secret Service failed to give clear instructions on how state and local officials should cover the building where the gunman took up position. The report also said the agency didn’t make sure it could share information with local partners in real time.
The hearing saw task force members recognizing local law enforcement for their actions at July’s rally while questioning the lack of coordinated communication with the Secret Service and leadership, and acknowledging that amid an unprecedented number of threats in the country and number of protectees, Secret Service agents are stretched thin.
Herold, who assisted at the Trump rally in 2020 at the Pittsburgh-Butler Regional Airport, said there seemed to be fewer resources at the rally in July, on the same day Secret Service was also covering an event featuring Jill Biden in Pittsburgh.
Herold said the level of protection at the 2020 rally may have seemed higher because Trump was president at the time. The site itself also differed, with the airport being fenced in and restricted.
At the Butler Farm Show grounds, authorities at the rally communicated through different channels while using two command posts. The use of two command posts is “unusual,” Sullivan testified.
He described the security failures as “shocking and infuriating.”
Mere minutes before the gunman opened fire, calls of a suspicious person on the roof of the AGR building went out on different channels to the two posts, according to witness testimony.
In his opening remarks, Rep. Mike Kelly, R-16th, described the communication between law enforcement as a game of telephone.
Lenz also testified that some members of law enforcement did not receive pictures of the would-be assassin taken as he loitered around the AGR building. The pictures were shared by text between group chats of local snipers. Those who were using FirstNet — a communications system built for first responders — received the pictures, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Fla., said.
When asked by task force member Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., whether there was a means to send the picture of Thomas Matthew Crooks directly to the Secret Service, Lenz answered that email could have been an option.
“If you see a man ... on the roof with a gun — a potential threat to the former president — you don’t send an email,” Ivey said.
Lenz also told lawmakers the Secret Service “never gave us direction” for the unit’s two sniper teams.
Local law enforcement were not asked by Secret Service to cover the rooftop of the AGR building, Lenz said.
Herold said during a walk through of the event, there was no discussion of the AGR building.
Blasko testified he told Secret Service agents the units would not have the capability of posting snipers on the building. He said he asked whether additional people would be posted and was told “that they would take care of it.”
There had also been discussion about posting large farm equipment that would block the line of sight that was exposed at the rally.
“A 10-year-old looking at that satellite image could have seen that the greatest threat posed to the president that day” was the AGR building and the roof, said Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Texas.
“And a 20-year-old with a week's notice figured it out,” he said.
Kelly said that when fingers began to point to place blame after the shooting, local law enforcement was the first to receive it.
“We have experienced the same thing that Saturday,” Kelly, who was present at the rally July 13, told local witnesses. “I know how deeply wounded you were after that event ...”
“You guys did everything you were asked to do that day,” he said. “You stayed the course.”
In their opening remarks, Blasko and Lenz both touched on the impact of the shooting.
“Butler County is our home,” Lenz said. “Some of those attending were our neighbors, our friends, our families and our co-workers. In fact, my wife was one of the paramedics embedded with our team at the rally, and she provided treatment to those that had been shot.”
A report will be made available to the public in December, said Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La. Members have five days to submit additional materials and written questions.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
